Camille Marino Arrested — Are Animal Rights Activists a “Hate Group”?

Two activists with the animal rights group “Negotiation Is Over” (NIO) have been arrested at a protest in Florida. Group founder Camille Marino was arrested on an out of state warrant, and is awaiting extradition to Michigan.

In Michigan, NIO is campaigning against an animal experimenter at Wayne State University named Donal O’Leary, who uses dogs in heart experiments. One of the dogs, the Dalmation pictured above named Queenie, was forced to run on a treadmill with a device implanted in her heart, catheters protruding from her body, and open wounds leaking fluids. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and five Michigan doctors urged the federal government to investigate O’Leary’s violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Marino has allegedly posted personal information about O’Leary on the NIO website, alongside inflammatory commentary and her voicing support for physical violence. (Most of these posts appear to have been removed recently.) For example, on one of the NIO blog posts about O’Leary, a commenter wrote 800 words of gruesome details about what should be done to him, such as “We will then strap you into a monkey restraining device and use industrial pliers to crack your testicles like walnuts.”

Marino replied:

Is there any chance I can persuade you to videotape your proposed activism so that we might upload it to NIO for the entire community to enjoy?

I just finished sending off an email to this motherfucker wishing him a slow painful death.

I would be elated to actually watch it come to pass!

In response to the violent rhetoric and posting of personal information, Wayne State University banned Marino from campus. Later, O’Leary obtained a court order that instructed Marino to remove the personal information from her website. She not only refused, she reposted it and wished him “good luck” collecting his legal fees.

Since her arrest, there has been wildly inaccurate information about the case. For instance, some NIO supporters claimed she was being held in a maximum security prison (she’s not, she is in Alachua County Jail). Others put out press releases saying that this was the first arrest under the National Defense Authorization Act (her arrest had nothing to do with NDAA). Such exaggeration doesn’t help anyone.

However, NIO’s opponents are spreading what could be much more dangerous misinformation.

Marino’s campaigning is controversial, but to call it a “hate group” is overreaching. Among the many differences between NIO and hate groups is that animal rights activists are opposing people because of what they do rather than who they are.

An even more important difference is that hate groups engage in physical violence, while NIO has only sensationally talked about it on blogs and Facebook.

Upon reading the story it looks like Ms. Marino is not guilty of any serious crime… She did have a protective order issued against her, I’m not sure it was really violated here and it may get dismissed. She has committed no specific act of violence or damage to property. An expired drivers license is no big deal either.

These are important points to consider when discussing whether NIO’s blog is protected by the First Amendment. At the heart of the two key standards in First Amendment law is the question: Is the speaker using outrageous rhetoric to get attention, or will these threats be carried out?

In this case, the answer is clear.

While Marino and her followers may praise the tactics of anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder and suicide bombers (Marino says: “If one is going to end their own suffering, it would be an admirable act if they took as many abusers as possible with them”) there has never been physical violence in the name of their cause.

And while Marino may write about how she is eager for the day when animal rights activists cross that line and murder human beings (and other activists have been saying the same thing for decades), it is just that: words.

There are limits to speech, of course, and there’s no doubt that NIO’s conduct tests those limits. But, as I wrote in Green Is the New Red:

The history of the First Amendment is one of protecting the vulgar, the crass, the wayward and unhinged. It has protected Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan leader, when he called for “revengeance” against the courts, Congress and the president, while Klansmen at the rally shouted “bury the niggers.” At a very different kind of rally, Robert Watts told anti-war protesters that he would refuse service if drafted to Vietnam. “If they ever make me carry a rifle,” he said, “the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J.”

Why have the courts upheld such a radical interpretation of the First Amendment? What can be the value of sensationalistic, offensive speech?

The courts have not made exceptions to the First Amendment lightly or without controversy, believing that the amount of protection afforded to those on the fringes reflects the freedoms of those at the center.

Protecting the rights of the Brandenburgs, the Wattses, and the Everses may sound outrageous to those who have been on the receiving end of the vitriol, such as animal experimenters.

And it might even sound outrageous to much of the animal rights movement, because NIO has been such a divisive and confrontational group amongst other animal activists.

But in cases like this all parties should step back and remember that, at its core, the First Amendment has never been about protecting or supporting unsavory speech; it’s about refusing to prohibit it.

NIO was attacked! We need your help to get back online and wage our war on abusers!

Several months ago, we sustained two almost back-to-back DDOS attacks that were resolved rather quickly. It now appears that one of those was a little more sinister. We were hit with some kind of virus that has corrupted our configurations so that we cannot stay online. As soon as we go up, the servers overload. It is costing a fortune in technical support to isolate and extract the problematic scripts once and for all. My tech isolated a significant portion of the problem on Saturday night (a virus that’s sapping 75% of our resources). We’re almost there. But this is why NIO keeps going up and down.

We will continue to wage this war in the streets where we live and across-the-board through the internet. But we’ve been attacked and need our community’s help while we work to get back online. Any contributions may be made through paypal to negotiationisover@yahoo.com.

Thank you in advance for your help, Camille

The following is from Ron Roberts.

Since its inception three years ago, NIO has become a powerful and unique voice in the movement for animal rights, as well as for the liberation of the planet and all beings from human oppression.

NIO has changed the rules by which animal activists engage abusers. The philosophy is simple yet profound; anyone who engages in the horrific treatment of any sentient being should no longer expect to remain anonymous. They and their family, friends, neighbors and colleagues should be made to face the awful truth.

NIO has opened a new front in the war to end animal exploitation and is a vital voice for the animals. In recent months, the financial burden in running NIO has been growing. This includes sizable administrative costs for a dedicated server and keeping up with technical innovations, as well as expenses associated with gathering the information necessary to expose sadistic torturers to the light of day.

In addition, there are many legal expenses involved in challenging the entrenched status quo and many potential legal avenues closed due to lack of adequate funding.

Animal agriculture and other abusers have unlimited money at their disposal to perpetuate their terrible lies and insinuate their unconscionable falsehoods into government and media. For NIO to continue to confront these moral criminals, the time has come for us to ask our supporters to make whatever financial commitment they can to the maintenance and growth of NIO.

Consequently, we have added a donate button to our site for your convenience. If the site is momentarily unavailable while our techs are working, please use paypal to send your contributions to negotiationisover@yahoo.com. Any money given will be used to continue the fight for animal rights. Unlike Peta, HSUS, ASPCA or most other animal welfare/rights organizations, every penny donated will go directly to the operations of NIO. Nothing will be taken for anyone’s salary or personal benefits. So please make whatever contribution you can to this vital voice for those who cannot speak for themselves and continue to do so on an ongoing basis.

Open letter to Air France-KLM representatives

Dear representatives of Air France,
We have been very disappointed to learn that your company transports animals intended for use in biomedical research. By participating in this cruel and unethical trade you bring shame on yourselves and your company, as well as causing considerable suffering to the animals whom you transport. They are forced to endure extremely stressful journeys, which can last up to 60 hours, and, as we are sure that you are aware, many of them die during transportation.

Animals in research laboratories are subjected to highly invasive experiments, which cause them immense pain and suffering, yet, as no species of animal is the biological model of another, the biological reaction of an animal to an unspecified substance reveals nothing about the consequences it will have on a human being. We invite you to judge this for yourself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4811626.stm

It is simply impossible to accurately recreate the physiological conditions within the human body in a non-human animal. For example, a human neuro-degenerative disease, largely influenced by our lifestyle and the hundreds of toxic substances present in our blood, simply cannot be recreated in any other species of animal. The fact of the matter is that animal experimentation is a scientific fraud that is being rejected by a growing number of researchers within the scientific community due to its obvious flaws and unreliability.

As an association we promote an ethical and reliable approach to scientific research, so it is for this reason that we ask that you immediately cease the transportation of animals to laboratories. The vast majority of airline companies now refuse to participate in this unethical business, and we ask that you now join with them by changing your company policy not to transport animals to research laboratories.

We don’t believe that either our supporters, nor many of your customers, would approve of your participation in this barbaric trade. Yet should you not change your position on this matter before March 21st, 2011, we will then be obliged to inform them of your conduct and invite them to no longer use your services.

We await a favourable answer on your part, and we remain at your disposal for any possible clarifications that you may require regarding this matter.

On Valentine's Day, we are obliged to remember all those who've earned a special place in our hearts… by Just Us Below is the contact information for four individuals who make their living mutilating, torturing, and murdering primates. They each get hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal grants to carry out their atrocities. This is your tax money. They need to hear your voice. Please make as many calls as possible to the p … Read More

There are plans to build a high level [3] virus containment facility & animal testing lab in Camden. The lab has been described as “becoming the world’s largest ever animal testing lab” & will be partially govt funded by 40 -50%. Currently Huntingdon Life Sciences near Cambridge is the third largest such European lab & the two labs could be in direct “competition” with each other say campaigners.

The Lab will bring together scientists from three leading biomedical research organisations to develop new treatments for illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases that affect families in the UK and around the world.

The roots of these and all diseases lie in the altered functioning of cells or the way they interact within the body. Developing a better understanding of biological processes in health will help us understand why disease develops and how it might be treated.

Progress in biomedical research is rapid, so UKCMRI’s research programme will not be defined in detail until closer to its opening in 2015.

Boris Johnson has approved plans for the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI)

Key facts:

1500 staff, including 1250 scientists

Annual budget of over £100m

Initial investment of £600m (breakdown)

Thousand of animals will be tested on

Camden Councils Development Control committee by a majority of 4, voted in favour of granting planning permission to the UKCRMI.